What is OSEHRA VistA?

OSEHRA VistA is a set of software components designed to support open source EHR solutions based upon the award-winning VistA EHR developed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. OSEHRA VistA is not intended as a complete EHR solution, but as a baseline of open source community code that will strengthen all VistA-based EHR implementations and accelerate community innovation. OSEHRA VistA consists of FOIA VistA, with redacted code replaced to ensure functionality, plus added innovations and established, OSEHRA-certified software from the community. OSEHRA VistA lays the groundwork for enhanced collaboration and accelerated innovation among the many members of the open source electronic health record (EHR) community.

The new product set is the result of more than five years of community collaboration. Until now, the open source VistA community has been unable to realize the full benefit of open source development. While many vendors and healthcare providers have utilized VA code or derivative versions of VistA, prior to the initiation of this project, code sharing and collaborative development among the community members have been handicapped by the lack of a common baseline with a known licensing model. The emergence of OSEHRA VistA will allow all community members to share portions of their code.

The following is a COMPLETE list of all the changes made to FOIA VistA to create OSEHRA VistA:

Undo VA redaction of XUSRB1; this requires a recompilation of CPRS with the correct unredacted hash (No other changes are made in CPRS)

Manual edit of routine DPTLK7 on line PROMPT+16 to prevent it from calling the MPI

All but the last three items transport routines via KIDS builds; the last 2 modifications are edits done by the testing framework.

OSEHRA Certified VistA Components

OSEHRA Certified VistA Components include various VistA packages that have been OSEHRA Certified (minumum OSEHRA Level-2). As part of this certification, these components have been certified as compatible with OSEHRA VistA, so that they can be easily implemented as part of any VistA. Certified components include:

What does "Open Source" mean?

OSEHRA VistA is licensed under the Apache 2.0 Open Source License. That means the source code for the entire system is available to the public free of charge. Open Source enables adopters to obtain the code easily, then use it, improve it, and share enhancements fluidly and freely with the rest of the Open Source Community through OSEHRA. In short, everyone benefits from the collective contributions to the shared code base.